Break the sales procrastination habit—today

What are you waiting for?

You’ve got a project due on Thursday, you need to finish a sales presentation and you’ve been meaning to follow up with a potential client for weeks. So what do you do? You put them off and tell yourself you’ll get around to it later.

There are many ways to avoid success in life and business. One surefire way is through procrastination. Procrastinating is avoiding what you know you need to be doing. Procrastinating is doing anything other than what you should be doing. This form of self-sabotage plays itself out by putting off today what you know you’ll never get around to doing tomorrow. We all procrastinate, but the level of your participation dramatically determines your success and income.

The dictionary defines procrastination as “to delay or postpone action.” Procrastination is a choice. When something is really important, you find the time and you act upon it immediately! We all have the same number of hours in a day; we just choose to spend them differently.

The battle with procrastination among sales people and business owners is raging! They’re consistently avoiding difficult tasks and deliberately looking for distractions. If not dealt with and met head on, it will ruin a sales career and take down a business.

In our personal lives, we know we should call our family more often, eat healthier, clean our office or home, or exercise a few days a week. But some of us don’t.

In our professional lives, we know we should attend more networking events, follow-up with a few more customers, work on a sales presentation, increase prospecting and reach out to past clients. But some of us don’t.

Procrastination wins every time. If you want to increase your income and close more sales you have to push past the urge to procrastinate and move into action, whether you feel like it or not! You can’t put off a money making activity today and expect to be motivated to do it tomorrow. I can still hear my Dads words, “just because you don’t feel like doing something, doesn’t mean you don’t have to do it.”

There are countless reasons why people procrastinate and then justify why they can’t do something or why their business isn’t producing results. Here a few of the many reasons: “I ran out of time,” “I’ll get to it tomorrow,” “I’m exhausted,” “I’m just too busy,” or “I forgot,” The list goes on but the theme is the same; someone or something else got in the way of doing what needed to be done. The truth is they’re doing exactly what they want to be doing; procrastinating. We’re all doing exactly what we want to be doing in almost any moment.

Life is nothing but a series of choices. Those choices lead to results or not. They generate profit or loss. Procrastination is an epidemic. Procrastination is an expensive habit and a costly way of being. It always leads to smaller paychecks and decreased revenue. In any moment we’re either procrastinating or producing results. The choice is yours; move into action or hang out and stay stuck in procrastination.

The ability to get things done and overcome procrastination is one of the most important skills to master if you wish to build a thriving business and earn more money.

Liz Wendling is the president of Insight Business Consultants, a nationally recognized business consultant, sales strategist and emotional intelligence coach. Liz is driven by her passion for business and generating results for her clients. Liz understands the challenges that business owners are facing building a business and selling their professional services in today's market.

Liz shows clients how to tap into and use their innate strength, power and confidence to develop highly successful businesses. She teaches them to create effective, dynamic and fluid client conversations that turn interested prospects into invested clients who keep coming back.

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Readers Respond

I've seen this often in my years of consulting with businesses who want to grow. While self-discipline is a large factor in this, sometimes they also lack the specific experience or skills to help them cut through the unimportant and easier clutter and focus on pursuing what will bring results. By Barbara Osgood-Hartness on 2012 07 25

Loved that piece. I felt like you were talking directly to me. What AM I waiting for? I appreciate your articles and for exposing what holds many people back. Tina By tina on 2012 07 24

Good advice Liz. We are all given the same 24 hours a day, but how we use them sets us apart from others. I try to break procrastination by doing just a little bit at a time, instead of looking at the whole daunting task. By George Tyler on 2012 07 24